2016 Singapore Grand Prix
|poletime = 1:42.584 |fastestlap = 1:47.187 |fastestlapdriver = Daniel Ricciardo |fastestlapnation = AUS |fastestlapteam = |fastestlapnumber = 49 |winner = Nico Rosberg |winnernation = GER |winnerteam = |second = Daniel Ricciardo |secondnation = AUS |secondteam = |third = Lewis Hamilton |thirdnation = GBR |thirdteam = }}The 2016 Singapore Grand Prix (officially the 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix) was the fifteenth round of the 2016 Formula One season, and the ninth time the Singapore Grand Prix was held. It was held between 16 September and 18 September 2016. __TOC__ Background At the previous race in Italy, Nico Rosberg took victory after polesitter and teammate Lewis Hamilton had a poor start and only recovered to finish second, which closed the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg in the Drivers' Championship to just two points, though Hamilton still led the championship. Daniel Ricciardo's fifth-place finish kept him third, eighty-seven points behind Rosberg, while Sebastian Vettel's podium finish kept him ahead of teammate Kimi Räikkönen. ' 1-2 finish resulted in them getting 498 points in total, while already leading the Constructors' Championship 208 points ahead of . Despite getting both their drivers to finish third and fourth in Italy, were still eleven points behind Red Bull. ' better performance in Italy put them back ahead of , with a three-point gap. Williams soon confirmed that Ferrari's former Head of Tyre Performance Group, Antonio Spagnolo, was added to their team in order to make them more competitive than Force India, while Vettel was featured at Ferrari's Racing Days of Hockenheim show at the Hockenheimring. Additionally, Mercedes got their first try of the wider tyres that were being made for , while Ricciardo felt confident that he could have a better race than Monaco depending on what would happen to the teams. Soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres were selected for use in the Grand Prix, being the fourth time ultrasofts have been used in a Grand Prix. Championship leader Hamilton chose seven ultrasoft sets, and three sets of supersofts and softs each. Rosberg, the Red Bulls and s were the remaining ones to choose seven ultrasoft tyres, while Ferrari, and Marcus Ericsson chose nine sets of ultrasofts. With Felipe Massa already confirmed to retire from Formula One at the end of the season, Valtteri Bottas was confident that Williams could search for a new driver to race for them in 2017, although Williams did not yet confirm their 2017 driver lineup at the time of his interview. Several teams, including , and , mentioned about that they would be pushing hard to have great results in the Grand Prix, with McLaren aiming to finish in the points once again. Meanwhile, Mercedes were determined to do better than the previous Singapore Grand Prix, when their tyre performance prevented them from qualifying on the front row and finishing on the podium. Entry list Practice Overview FP1 As FP1 started, Rosberg and Hamilton went out on ultrasofts, with Hamilton also testing out the halo cockpit protection system. Hamilton and Rosberg improved on their first times, where Hamilton was ahead of Rosberg with times of 1:47.743s and 1:47.369 respectively. However, Vettel soon split the two Mercedes drivers with a time of 1:47.731, and soon improved alongside Verstappen and Ricciardo, despite Vettel's car scraping a wall. Verstappen was the fastest of all the drivers, with a time of 1:45.823, and kept it as day turned to night. Rosberg was able to improve with a set of softs, the hardest available, putting him into fifth, while Hamilton also improved on softs to be fourth fastest. Button's car, meanwhile, screeched to a halt, but it started working again once it was taken back to the pits, while Grosjean could only do a bit of the session thanks to an ERS issue. With twelve minutes to go, Rosberg and the other drivers were doing their final runs, but Rosberg locked up and went into the barrier at Turn 18, losing his front wing and puncturing his front-left tyre. By the end of the session, Verstappen was quickest. FP2 FP3 Practice Results Qualifying Q1 Q2 Q3 Qualifying Results ** Pérez was given an eight-place grid penalty for disallowed actions under double yellow flags. *† Grosjean was given a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. *‡ Vettel was given a 25-place grid penalty for numerous internal part changes. However, his grid position was not affected, since he failed to qualify higher than last place due to technical issues. Grid ** Pérez was given an eight-place grid penalty for disallowed actions under double yellow flags. *† Grosjean was given a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. He later failed to start the race due to brake issues. *‡ Vettel was given a 25-place grid penalty for numerous internal part changes. However, his grid position was not affected, since he failed to qualify higher than last place due to technical issues. Race Report Post-race During the post-race press conference, Rosberg declared that he is only focused on the win: "No, I'm not focused on points. As I always say, I'm just happy with the win today." To add to that, he admitted that the sight of a marshal near the track as the race was restarted was "pretty hairy". Ricciardo also seemed to regret having took his third pit stop, saying that "At the time our pace on the soft for that last stint was quite good. I was catching Rosberg slowly. At first I was a bit hesitant when they said we were going to do a three stop, but obviously now I see it. It was good to put a bit of pressure on them." However, he did think that he would not have been able to overtake Rosberg for the win anyway: "I knew my pace would drop off a bit because I was getting into the tyres pretty aggressively. But I knew it was going to be close. I wasn't really thinking about what happens when I catch him, I was just just focusing on trying to catch him and put some pressure on him because I knew his engineer would be on the radio saying 'Ricciardo's catching you, two seconds a lap'. It's not a nice feeling when you hear that. I was just trying to keep pushing, force him into a bit of an error or something. But I knew once I caught him it was going to be tricky to overtake." With his brakes having been in danger of overheating during much of the race, Hamilton stated he could not close the gap: "The first stop we extended the tyres, we were supposed to go to lap 11 and we ended up, I was at 14 and they pitted me the same lap as they pit Daniel Ricciardo, which didn't make sense to me. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity. But anyway as I say I had such problems with my brakes I wouldn't have been able to beat Daniel anyway. I feel like I did everything I could. Obviously when you have a mistake that's not a great thing but it wouldn't have made really much difference. A very trying weekend. These ones come along sometimes, you just need to take it on the chin. I've been exactly in this point in the season in this position before but I've definitely been in a lot worse." However, despite losing the championship lead to Rosberg, Hamilton did not rule out any hopes of fighting back in Malaysia and the other following races: "...in all in all, with everything that's gone on this year, I'm still in the fight, there's still a long way to go and I'm going to give it everything I've got." Alonso had also been confident that he could have been in the top three after Hülkenberg's crash, but was okay with the result he received in the end: "Seventh was the maximum we could achieve today, the best of the rest after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris. We weren't perhaps quite the fourth-fastest team here this weekend, so it's thanks to good strategy and a good start that we were able to bring home this result. I chose to go on the outside at the start, and the crash didn't affect me as I was already up into sixth at that point. Then I braked very late for the first corner and got past Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Raikkonen. Everything went fine – sometimes you just need to get lucky. For a time, I was even hoping for a podium finish – if something had happened ahead of me it could have worked out that way – but in fact it was one of those races in which nothing happened at the front. But, overall, we did the best we could today." Verstappen also thought his race was somewhat ruined by Hülkenberg's crash: "It wasn't as bad as Monza, but it wasn't good. I had a lot of wheel spin and then with Nico Hulkenberg spinning in front of me, I had to brake even more which compromised my whole start." Meanwhile, Hülkenberg explained about his start: "I had made such a good start – probably my best getaway off the line this year. I went for the gap between the two Toro Rossos, which was there, but obviously things got very tight. I had Daniil Kvyat on my right and Carlos on my left, and Carlos hit my left rear, which sent me into the wall." Results Milestones *Nico Rosberg's 200th entry and start. *Marcus Ericsson's 50th entry and start. Standings after race Notes Category:Grand Prix articles Category:2016 Grands Prix Category:Singapore Grand Prix